TOKYO, June 17, 2016-

Toray Industries, Inc. (Head office: Chuo-ku, Tokyo, President: Akihiro Nikkaku; hereinafter referred to as "Toray") announced today that it has decided to enhance the production capacity of its high-performance polypropylene spunbond nonwoven fabric (hereinafter referred to as "PP spunbond") at Toray Advanced Materials Korea, Inc. (head office: Seoul, Republic of Korea; Chairman & CEO: Lee Young-kwan; hereinafter referred to as "TAK"), which manufactures and sells the material. TAK will build an additional facility with a production capacity of 18,000 tons per year on the premise leased by TAK in the Gumi National Industrial Complex 5 in Gumi, Gyeongsangbuk-do, Korea. The new facility is expected to start operations in April 2018.

Demand for disposable diapers for babies and toddlers has been rapidly increasing in ASEAN member countries, India and China, as the lifestyle of people in these countries improves against the backdrop of high economic growth and rising national income. Especially in China, which is the largest market, import of high-end products made in Japan and Korea has been sharply expanding as the people increasingly opt for safe products, and major sanitary products manufactures with global presence have been declaring plans in succession to expand plants producing products for the Asian countries. Given this situation, demand for PP spunbond, which is the main raw material of disposable diapers, is expected to grow at an annual rate of about 9% from 500,000 tons per year in 2015 reflecting expanding demand for diapers for senior citizens in developed countries in addition to that for babies and toddlers in emerging nations, and the material’s supply is forecast to fall short.

Nonwovens Markets subscribers - click here to read the full article.

Not a subscriber?

Try Nonwovens Markets free!